Onion Launches Pulitzer Prize Bid
"This month The Onion celebrates its 1,000th anniversary issue, a landmark achievement that won't matter in the slightest unless a coveted award comes with it," intones "Stephen Forbeck," the leader of the supposed watchdog group Americans for Fairness in Awarding Journalism Prizes, in an online ad out this week pressuring the Pulitzer committee to award the satirical newspaper one of the top industry honors. The Onionhas decided to run a full-court press trying to score one of the prizes (even though the last round was handed out just recently) and through "AFAJP" is soliciting help from fans. On the organization's website YouTube videos have already been posted from supporters and celebrities like Mario Batali and Arianna Huffington, the latter of whom threatens to have all the links on the Huffington Post direct users to overload the website of the Columbia Journalism School, which runs the Pulitzer program.
According to the Times, The Onion's editors don't actually know, or care, whether their 1,000th issue will come this month; they just think it's their time. In fact, the satirical paper was reportedly seriously considered for one of the awards nearly a decade ago, after the September 11 attacks in 2001. Their piece "Hijackers Surprised to Find Selves in Hell" was a memorable touchstone in a difficult time and proved that the terrorists had not, in fact, killed irony.
Watch AFAJP video below:
The Onion Is Seeking a Pulitzer, Any Pulitzer [NYT]
Americans for Fairness in Awarding Journalism Prizes [Tumblr]
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